Building a new computer. (question about motherboard)

[Windmill 1521]

so, I'm kind of looking to build a new computer. Dyscivist's guide has been helping me a lot thanks dys. I like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable about computers; however, I'm pretty inexperienced with motherboards.

Right now I'm looking at the ASUS P8Z77-V

Now, I'm thinking about dropping 500 on a GTX 680. Eventually I might want to buy another one and put it in SLI.

So, I'm looking at the specs and I'm wondering...

PCI Express 3.0 x16. However, it says "Dual @x8". I'm unsure of what x16 exactly means. Does that mean if I put my 680 in SLI that my PCI slots will operate at half the speed?

My WIP build specs:

Case: SilverStone FT02S

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x8GB)

GPU: EVGA GTX 680

CPU: i7-965 Extreme @3.2ghz (taken from my current build)

PSU: 1000W (taken from my current build)

Subtotal: 1,029.96 + shipping

THAYNKS.

[Skotti 2105]

Smashing.

[ZachPL 1754]

Pretty sure it means if one is inserted it operates at full single speed times 16x but if two are put in it operates at x8. Which is normal.

[Windmill 1521]

Pretty sure it means if one is inserted it operates at full single speed times 16x but if two are put in it operates at x8. Which is normal.

How does that affect the speed of the cards themselves?

[ZachPL 1754]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/308684-30-dual-nvidia-please

According to that you would only be losing a couple of fps and that's only if you SLI.

[Windmill 1521]

smashing. thanks zach, helped a lot.

[blob 1985]

Why are you spending 260 on a case?

Eventually I might want to buy another one and put it in SLI.

Everyone says this, no one does it.

[BLiNDBoi 930]

Why are you spending 260 on a case?

Eventually I might want to buy another one and put it in SLI.

Everyone says this, no one does it.

SLI/CrossFire is really meant for rendering in my book, yes you can get better performance while playing games but that is assuming the game you want to play has proper support for it. In any case SLI/CrossFire only increases heat and power consumption by atleast twice for maybe 50% performance boost.

I would like to do this as well but just to say I did it and nothing more.

EDIT:

PCI Express 3.0 x16. However, it says "Dual @x8". I'm unsure of what x16 exactly means. Does that mean if I put my 680 in SLI that my PCI slots will operate at half the speed?

Long time ago the different between 16x and 8x seemed to be a big deal, but according to this following video it really doesn't make much of a difference.

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Edited August 23, 2012 by BLiNDBoi

[MOFLSTOMP 899]

PCI Express video cards are just finally able to start taking advantage of the full PCI-E x16 2.0 bandwidth. With 3.0, they doubled the available bandwidth per lane effectively, so each 3.0 slot at x8 is running full 2.0 x16 speeds.

Also, contrary to Blindboi, the difference has never really mattered because the generation gap was always implemented before it was needed. Most current-gen cards don't even have the thoroughput to use the full 16 lanes.

When PCI-E x16 2.0 came out, no card could make use of it, and using an older 2.0 card (When it first released) in a 1.1 slot yielded little performance difference in comparable tests. This in mind, to answer the overall question, the x8 speeds won't matter until far later in the lifespan of PCI-E x16 Gen 3, when the later GeForce and AMD architectures start to be unveiled. By that time, Gen 4 will be released as a precautionary measure as can easily be predicted

[BLiNDBoi 930]

Very true, I just bothered to check on the specs and found they will are planning on releasing PCI e 4.0 2014/2015 which will double the transfer rates to 16Gb/s. In any regard, I am willing to bet that a GTX 690 can't even eat all the bandwidth of a PCI e 2.1 slot.

Edited August 23, 2012 by BLiNDBoi